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tv   ABC World News With Diane Sawyer  ABC  October 31, 2012 6:30pm-7:00pm EDT

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this is "world news." tonight, race against time. entire towns submerged in water, sand and now fire. the national guard saving families. thousands still stranded tonight. and why they have to listen to this dangerous hissing sound. a sound that could lead to this. water worry. our dr. richard besser tests the water all around millions of people in the storm zone and the worrying results are in. countdown. to another race. the election, days away. how has this storm changed the campaign? and, life lessons from the storm. what this man did with his cell
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phone that helped give birth to his baby. and how this officer saved his family before he died. good evening. and tonight, we have breaking news from the storm zone. look at this. new scenes of utter devastation. thousands of people still stranded and at this hour, rescuers still scrambling to pull families out of harm's way. also tonight, a new terror. can you see that in the water? the bubbling up? that geyser is flammable gas spewing out of a pipe and it's happening all across one town. a single spark could ignite everything. and the people there can hear the hissing sound as it leaks. listen. [ hissing ] abc's terry moran spent the day
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in that town and he's standing by with the very latest for us right now. terry? >> reporter: diane, this is what you see throughout the jersey shore right now. homes just rippled right off their foundations. this was someone's living room. there's a kitchen back there, a bathroom over here. but look down here. none of the infrastructure of the house is left. it's somewhere else. and that is why the real threat here right up and down the shore is what you can't see. fires rage in the town of mantoloking on the jersey shore early this morning, fueled by natural gas. it is a harbinger of a worst-case scenario here -- a potential disaster after the disaster. >> you can hear the gas. you can smell the gas. everywhere you go, you hear "shh", just all the open gas lines going. just scared to death. [ hissing ] >> reporter: do you hear that? that is the sound that everyone left in this town is faring the
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most. it is a hissing gas main. street after street. you can smell it in the air. and fire officials are concerned that these towns are basically ticking time bombs. everywhere we went along the jersey shore today, in town after town, the air was filled with this hissing menace. >> if the wind shifts, it's going to get into the crawl space,od forbid a spark. >> reporter: in the town of ortley beach, frank mazzo is worried and getting angry. have you called the gas company about this? >> five times. >> reporter: and their response? >> they'll get there as soon as they can. >> reporter: you can actually see the gas pouring out. it ruptured monday night. >> i don't know why there's not more trucks here right now. i mean, this is where we took the main shot. this is it, like, where are all the gas trucks? you got down the block, we got
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down the block, why can't we get gas trucks down the block? >> reporter: we saw fleets of earthmovers clearing streets choked with acres of sand. and search and rescue teams continue to take the stranded to safety. but only a handful of gas cres s as the air fills with the makings of another catastrophe. abc news has reach md out to new jersey natural gas, that's the utility company company and received the following response. "this is noanger to life or property." the people here would disagree. diane? >> watching and waiting tonight. thank you, terry. and further up, the 630 miles of battered coastline, and that's in new york and new jersey alone. we go to hoboken, new jersey, and two pictures that say so much. wading through the river of water there and also, a very determined piggy back ride to safety. abc's alex perez is there. alex?
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>> reporter: well, diane, here, the streets of hoboken still much chaos tonight. this is a medical unit truck that showed up to help someone stranded in this apartment. people are just trying to figure out what to do. there are trucks like this one all over town trying to make sure people get to safety. many of them are frustrated and running out of options. the bottom of the bathtub, as one neighbor calls it, first and harrison in hoboken. this is the site stranded residents thought they'd never see. military rescue crew s busting their backs to get each person out. step by step, one by one. ann has been waiting her turn for the last few hours. >> you can't communicate with everyone. you can't find out what's going on anywhere else. we've been on this little island. >> reporter: hoboken is just across the hudson river from manhattan. it's the city where frank sinatra was born and tonight, it's 25% under water. abc's sam champion got a birds eye view today.flooding that we
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looking at, this is wednesday. the storm made landfall on monday night. that water, still there. >> reporter: on the ground, as many as 20,000 people may be stranded in their homes. here, an entire block, taking turns using a generator to charge their phones and make some coffee to stay warm. some are braving the stew of sewage and rainwater. dana and daniel decided to truck through. >> it's scary, you don't know how long you're going to be stuck here. you don't know how you're going to get out of town. >> reporter: dramatic scenes playing out across the region, in the desperate hours since sandy hit. last night, new york police helicopters air lifted staten island residents off their roof. up and down the jersey shore, scenes of devastation. house after house, crumpled to bits. and for many, stranded here in hoboken, there's no relief in sight. and diane, i'm standing in what's supposed to be a busy
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intersection. if you look around, as far as the eye can see, nothing but water. and of course, for the people that live here, the urgency is only growing. diane? >> thank you, alex. and these rescue scenes bring us to an update, the ones you saw in alex's report, because they include some heroes of the storm you have met before. as sandy crashed into new york, i went to meet with the nypd's scuba rescue team and they are preparing to brave 20-foot waves in the dark of the night to help anyone in trouble, but they tell me today they did not have to rescue a single new yorker in the waters, so, they boarded those rescue helicopters. they were there, air lifting people off the rooftops in staten island. a grateful city thanking them tonight. and, how about the bright lights of the big city? well, the power was flickering back on today, in parts of the city. and here's how it began on wall street. street lights glowed green. and backup generators powered up
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the new york stock exchange as my your michael bloomberg rang the opening bell. the markets back in business after a two-day hihiatus. the dow closed flat at the end of the day. other signs of life tonight. broadway back after losing $7 million in ticket sales. and, we could see new yorkers huddling at banks using extension cords to charge their cell phones. all across the city, new yorkers walked and waited. you can see the traffic there on the right. it was hours to move anywhere. and, there is another hospital being evacuated tonight. bellevue hospital, famous for its mental health services. 150 national guard members coming in to take those patients to safety tonight. and new york is one of just 16 states grappling with power outages tonight. take a look at this. "the new york times" created a visual portrait of the power outages, as sandy moved up the
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coast and then moved on, leaving behind darkness. there you see where it happened. and also, back in action today, abc's chief medical editor, dr. richard besser. he was gathering up flood water to test it for the safety of anyone who touches it. and tonight, he put it to the lab. he has the answers. rich? >> reporter: that's right. yesterday, it was all about flood water. this is water that's in people's basements, it's water that's on the streets. so, i went down to lower m manhattan to collect a sample. as you know, it was loaded with gasoline. the ambient group lab tested it for bacteria and here's what they found. the yellow tells us it has bacteria. but look at this purple glow. that's sky high levels of sewage. all in all, the lab told us they found gasoline and two types of bacteria that are in sewages. it's very dangerous to come in contact with this. you have to wear protective equipment. >> wear gloves, wear gloves,
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and, again, throw out anything. you are going to test drinking water, as well. >> reporter: that's right. i'm getting questions about the drinking water. today, i went to piermont, new york, to see what the water conditions are like. they've been very hard-hit. they are under a boil water advisory. that means their water may not be safe to drink without boiling or purifying with bleach. the storm knocked out one of their pumps. that means a big water pipe may have lost pressure and sucked back some of the dirty water from the outside. and the water company was testing. this home, they saw that advisory and they were doing the boiling and that's a good thing. this family, they are all set for halloween and me and my helper collected the water and the lab is doing testing on their home water today. and we'll have those results for you. >> and how long do you have to boil the water before it is safe? >> reporter: you have to boil it for a full minute to ensure it is safe. >> rolling boil, one full minute. >> reporter: that's right. >> okay. and rich will be back again tomorrow night. thank you, rich. and before we move on, where is sandy tonight?
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the remnants of the storm are hurtling across the border into canada. flood warnings still in effect for parts of seven states. more snow on the way in west virginia and maryland. and our abc news extreme weather team continues the nonstop coverage throughout this night. and now, the race for the presidency, and a powerful image today. the fire brand republican governor of new jersey, chris christie, side-by-side with president obama. joining forces in this crisis. and just as our abc news poll out today shows president obama and governor mitt romney in a dead heat, with five days to go before americans get to the polls. your voice, your vote. and abc's jake tapper has more. >> reporter: hurricane sandy has forced the president to cancel his appearance at seven campaign events. but he may have gotten something more valuable. >> you're going to be okay. everybody's safe, right? >> reporter: the opportunity to lead and be seen leading.
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today with new jersey's republican governor chris christie a shelter in brigantine, new jersey. >> hang in there. >> thank you. >> reporter: theirs was a most public display of bipartisan ship today, a trait many undecided voters process to love, one sorely lacking in washington, d.c. >> he has worked incredibly closely with me and i cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern. >> governor christie, throughout this process, has been responsive, he has put his heart and soul into making sure that the people of new jersey bounce back. even stronger than before. >> reporter: the president seems confident. his campaign manager said they have the math, romney's campaign the myth. the polls out today have the president up in two of the states he needs to put together his electoral puzzle -- wisconsin and ohio. and it's not as if all campaigning has been discontinued. >> we're going to get through the next six days. >> reporter: vice president biden in florida and former president clinton in iowa have been making the president's case. >> obama's economic plan is better. his budget plan is better. >> reporter: diane, starting tomorrow morning, president
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obama will be chaining full-time, full steam ahead, going to wisconsin, colorado, nevada, three cities in ohio, and diane, that's just thursday and friday. >> all right, thank you, jake. and what about governor romney? what does he plan to do as the race enters the final stretch? abc's jonathan karl tells us about that. >> reporter: mitt romney was back on the campaign trail again today in florida -- but with a twist. gone was any criticism of the president, replaced with talk of unity. >> look, we can't go on the road we are on. we can't change course in america if we keep on attacking each other. we have got to come together and get america on track again. >> reporter: recent polls in florida show the race here in a dead heat. romney's most prominent florida supporter told us it is hard to imagine him getting elected if he doesn't win here. >> i think it's very important to win and obviously difficult to come up with a formula for victory, i am sure there is one, but let's not even try. let's win florida. >> reporter: just as important for romney is ohio, where he is
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under fire for ads suggesting u.s. automakers are about to ship jobs to china. >> obama took gm and chrysler into bankruptcy and sold chrysler to italians who are going to build jeeps in china. >> reporter: chrysler and gm angrily denied that they are shifting u.s. production to china. and joe biden accused romney of lying and causing panic among autoworkers in ohio. >> thousands of them are calling their uaw reps, "is it true, is it true? is jeep really going to leave? is the announcement not true? are they going to shut down our plant?" what a cynical, cynical thing to do. >> reporter: but the romney campaign does see some positive signs out there, especially in pennsylvania, minnesota and michigan. three states that have been considered solidly democratic, but where the obama campaign is now suddenly playing defense, spending more than $1 million on tv ads for the final week. diane? >> also on the campaign trail,
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jonathan karl. thank you, jon. and coming up here next, flammable gas leaking and it's not just a danger in the storm zone. look. our experiment tonight on this invisible threat. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy. this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here.
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go long. hear from all the gas pipes, hissing and spewing flammable gas over the towns. so, we wondered, exactly how much of that gas is needed to cause an explosion? and abc's senior national correspondent jim avila set out to show us tonight. jim? >> reporter: so, diane, we're at the virginia beach, virginia, training center, i'm with a firefighter here who is going to show us what happened when a commercial gas meter breaks. the pilot light will be on. and look how fast it will take off. it's a frightening sound, and sight. natural gas burns fast and long. and after a natural disaster like hurricane sandy, where houses have been moved off their foundations, and whole blocks levelled from fire, it's a hazard at every turn.
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there is little clue, except a sulfur smell, that is purposely added to the gas as a warning that danger lingers. so what are we approaching here? you can kind of smell that rotten egg smell. >> right. we're simulating a broken gas line here, and that smell is the merkapten injected into natural gas. >> reporter: okay, so when it goes up, end kind of goes up like your outside gas grill, it's hot. >> right. right now it's seeking an ignition source. ignition source can come from anything from a fuse on a light pole or a cigarette butt. >> reporter: but there's no real explosion, right? >> no, once the gas is seek, 5% to 17% flammable range and bam, it goes off. inside a structure, that's where you're going to get your explosion. >> reporter: there's plenty of evidence of that. watch as this house is rocked during a training exercise by arson investigators. >> the explosions are very hazardous, they can generate pressures on the order of 35 atmospheres. and these are like a military ballistic blast that
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can level houses and kill people within a great distance. >> reporter: and while our demonstrations today used flares to ignite, sources of ignitions are everywhere in a disaster zone. >> virtually anything can be an ignition source. molt or thes or fans can ignite it or heat, the temperature, something that's cherry red, an electrician stove that's cherry red is hot enough to ignite the mixture. >> reporter: diane, that's the sound that people all over new jersey are hearing. the thing the fire department says here is, don't panic, because it takes direct ignition to get it started if you're outside. if you're inside a house and that happens, get out right away, then call 911. diane? >> all right, jim avila. thank you tonight. and, coming up, a milestone also worth noting today, for the sistine chapel. why did michelangelo tell his friends he didn't want to paint it in the first place? i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin.
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as we said, it's a milestone for michelangelo. 500 years ago today, he completed this. the sistine chapel. pope benedict marketed the occasion at the vatican. it was pope julius ii who commissioned michelangelo to paint it. as we know, on his back. but michelangelo didn't want the job. he said it was so time consuming, they thought it was a conspiracy by his enemies to keep him from doing the work that would make him famous. and, of course, it is halloween tonight ain so many places but postponed in some statements because of the storm. but even in the storm zone, a lot of kids have found a way to trick or treat. super heroes and cats on long island, there you see them out in the dark in places where the power is out. not deterred by downed trees. and here in new york city, scenes tonight of determined trick or treaters, night vision
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and finally tonight, we know in crisis, so many people give whatever they can. and you just saw it there. a rescue worker, who turned himself into a kind of human foot stool so that people could get onto that truck. and so, abc's david muir decided to give us a kind of gallery of people who came through and all those who are saying thank you to them tonight. >> reporter: new mom julia, her husband duran and their new baby, micah, letting us know today, they're okay. >> hey, david. as you can see, we're doing great. really happy. >> reporter: and like so many people today, they wanted just one thing. to say thank you. to the quiet samaritans, the nurses, who simply were doing their jobs and became the real heroes of the hurricane. julia was in labor, having contractions inside that nshg
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hospital that went dark, lost power when the generators gave out. desperate for an epidural in the darkness, a husband held a cell phone light as nurses went to work. >> so, i was standing, one of those flip phones, and i was holding it above her while she was putting in the iv and making sure there was enough light for the doctors behind her. >> reporter: they were rushed out of the hospital, taken away in an ambulance. when they said they were headed to mt. sinai hospital, he said, how do you get there? part of a tree came crashing down on the ambulance. they got there, and 40 minutes later, baby micah was born. so, how is micah? >> oh, he's beautiful. he's awesome. >> reporter: there are so many families like them, touched by the kindness, the bravery of others. >> there's no words i have to thank them. >> reporter: this mom and dad and their baby, just six hours old, were also carried out of that darkened hospital.
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>> pretty amazing. saw them just dripping with sweat and carrying women that couldn't walk down the stairs. >> reporter: you were the welcoming committee. >> that's right. >> reporter: this was the team waiting at mt. sinai hospital, taking in patients. >> there's no practice for this, never. >> reporter: no practice, but perseverance and pride in what they were doing in those dark hours. happy ending, right? david muir, abc news, new york. >> and thank you so much for watching. we're always here at abcnews.com. "nightline" will be here later and i'll see you again tomorrow night. good night.
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